5 thoughts on “How to Make Money with Your Blog: The Ultimate Reference Guide for Building, Optimizing, and Monetizing Your Blog (How to Make . . .)”

1. Review by Jeff Lippincott for How to Make Money with Your Blog: The Ultimate Reference Guide for Building, Optimizing, and Monetizing Your Blog (How to Make . . .)
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   This is a book I recommend anyone interested in Internet marketing read and study. I liked it overall. But I didn’t like the title to the book because it gives the consumer the idea that there is real money to be made blogging. At page 88 the author finally acknowledges that bloggers should not expect to earn anything more than modest amounts of revenue each month. And modest means minimal! The book has the following chapters:

   1. Quick starts: Top 10 lists
   
   2. Blogs and search optimization (SEO)
   
   3. Generating revenue with your blog
   
   4. Managing your blog
   
   5. Extras and inspiration

   This book attemps to cover all aspects of successful blogging. It introduces the reader to Blogger and WordPress, which are the two main free blog-hosting services online. It also covers the various hosting options and what to look for in a host. I have blogs at both Blogger and WordPress, and I think they are wonderful hosting services. This book also covers how to create, maintain and promote a blog.

   According to the authors you can monetize your blog with either contextual ads, ad networks, or affiliate programs. Of course, it takes a very popular blog (one with lots of traffic) for much money to be made from any of these sources. And if you have a blog that is that successful, then you’d be better off selling your own products and services where you make all the money instead of collecting a wimpy commission.

   This book covers how to use your blog to self promote and gain credibility in your field. Your blog will help you funnel prospects and paying customers to your real Web site where you sell what you do for a living. Basically, blogs are great public relations and publicity tools for you to use in marketing your products and services.

   I would have liked the book better if its content had been divided into more than five chapters. It would have been an easier read if it had been. And I would have liked the book better if the title were different. For me the book is about blogging, and not how to make money from blogging. And since the author says few blogs will generate much cash each month, then why title the book about making money?

   Blogs can be used as an Internet marketing tool similar to article writing, and in a way social networking. They can be used to market public speaking gigs for the author, and to sell white papers and ebooks the author has written. And they can make referrals to the author’s main Web site where she sells online coaching, offline bootcamps, or similar services, or higher ticket products. Finally, blogs can help their owners connect to other bloggers who are part of the blogoshere. And getting connecting translates into getting known. 4 stars!

2. Review by Jerry Saperstein for How to Make Money with Your Blog: The Ultimate Reference Guide for Building, Optimizing, and Monetizing Your Blog (How to Make . . .)
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   The authors devote one chapter to “Generating Revenue With Your Blog” – and, frankly, it doesn’t tell you anything you can’t learn on the web. In fact, the authors refer the reader to many web sources for what they repeat in the book.

   There really isn’t much substance to this book. It is moderately well written, but offers no new or rare insights.

   It might be usable for someone who doesn’t use the web much or isn’t a very good researcher and who can’t find information on blogs on the web. In short, it’s a simple guide and nothing more, with much of the information coming directly from web sources, which the authors are honest enough to credit.

   But be aware that none of the subjects covered are treated in any depth. The part about “search enhine optimization” is laughably incomplete and amateurish.

   The book simply doesn’t live up to the promise of its title.

   Jerry

3. Review by JO for How to Make Money with Your Blog: The Ultimate Reference Guide for Building, Optimizing, and Monetizing Your Blog (How to Make . . .)
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   This book has some good information in it, but the good stuff is overshadowed by how poorly it is written. There are misspellings, conflicting information, switching between first and third person, screenshots that are unreadable & references to wrong diagrams. As another reviewer mentioned, it seems like the authors were more about promoting their own blogs & websites rather than offering measurable amounts of useful information. The most useful section of the book is actually a series of tips written by a blogger that the authors copied and included in the book (with full credit given to the original author). There is some decent information in the book, but I had much higher expectations from the title. This is a good book to check out at the library, but I wouldn’t buy it.

4. Review by Damien Patronix for How to Make Money with Your Blog: The Ultimate Reference Guide for Building, Optimizing, and Monetizing Your Blog (How to Make . . .)
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   I just didn’t find this book very useful or relevant. For a book written this recently, I don’t think they covered things like wordpress well enough and they seemed to be really scarce when it came to the resources available out there.

   Also, they talk about themselves way too much and you get a feel they are trying to advertise their own blogs way too much and that this book was just another way for them to monetize their own blog as opposed to helping others.

5. Review by Lisa D. Brugger for How to Make Money with Your Blog: The Ultimate Reference Guide for Building, Optimizing, and Monetizing Your Blog (How to Make . . .)
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   I’ve read his “How to Make Money on MySpace” book and loved it. This book has been equally as good. It is easy to read as well as filled with all sorts of great information. I’ve just started to get into blogging and read Problogger and this book is a great addition to the process. You will enjoy it!!

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